Urban Gentrification

For much of the 20th century, cities around the world

lost population due to suburbanization. Crime rates, pollution

and poor public schools drove middle class and affluent

people away from city centers to comfortable and bigger

suburban homes. Nowadays, cities like Tallinn, in Estonia,

New York City and London, among others, have been

showing an inverse trend: urban gentrification. It seems to be

a bounce-back from urban decline. Many city centers in the

Western world are better managed, cleaner, have a reliable

public-transport system and lower crime rates than a few

decades ago. For instance, New York City’s murder rate went

from 2,200 per year in 1990 to 414 last year, according to

figures published by The Economist. Not only do social

changes, but also economics plays a part in favoring cities

over suburbs. While many cities depended on factories and

railways some time ago, today’s fastest-growing industries

are finance, technology and business services, which help

revive urban economies. In this kind of business it is good to

have competitors, firms and clients closely packed together.

One of the drawbacks of urban gentrification is that it inflates

rents in urban areas where housing used to be affordable,

flooding wealthier people and money into neighborhoods and

forcing old inhabitants out of them.

Adapted from: What is driving urban gentrification? The Economist. September 16th, 2013. Available at: http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/09/economist-explains-5/print. Accessed on: november 1st, 20